A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

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Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com The Lib/Con Coalition is committed to the target to generate 20% of electricity from renewable resources by 2020. Many people are strongly opposed to plans for new nuclear power and coal fired stations with Carbon capture and storage (CCS). The CEO of Centrica warned that carbon capture storage (CCS) equipment is unlikely to be ready to make big cuts in Britain's emissions before 2030. The following describes elements of a coherent strategy to ensure this target is achieved without either of these options. Renewable power is a more responsible option. It matches peak consumer demand. It is argued that wind power is usually greater in mornings, evenings and winter. Spending disproportionately on coal and nuclear undermines potential investment in renewables. A better match for renewables is hydropower. We also need to link our grid with other countries such as Denmark, Germany, Spain and Portugal which are far enough away to have different wind and weather patterns that can complement ours. That will make it possible to smooth fluctuations in renewables on a reciprocal basis. UK and northern Europe need to work with the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East to help them to help them develop solar power and link it to our grids – see below under Natural Advantages and Solar Powering. Generating electricity from waste According to the National Grid, biogas made from waste could be used for generating electricity and heating in half the UK's homes. "Biogas has tremendous potential for delivering large scale renewable heat for the UK but it will require government commitment to a comprehensive waste policy and the right commercial incentives," said Janine Freeman, head of National Grid’s Sustainable Gas Group. “It provides a solution for what to do with our waste with the decline in landfill capacity and it would help the UK with a secure supply of gas as North Sea sources run down." The cost of developing the infrastructure for biogas was estimated at £10 billion, while the cost per unit of gas was found to be similar to that of other renewable energy sources. Manure, slurry and food can be used to create enough energy in the form of biogas to heat and power more than two million homes in Britain, according to Defra. Government needs to support and encourage the development of an industry supplying all the technology that is needed. The various technologies and options are well known. In some we are in the lead but, unfortunately, having to rely on export markets because of lack of government commitment to renewable energies and support. They have given preference to coal and nuclear power. Substantial incentives including sustainable taxation are needed to make things happen. In some cases development is needed. Large scale production will bring down the cost. There is no shortage of solutions which, when combined, could make dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power unnecessary. Natural advantages Areas like the Mediterranean, Africa, the Sahara desert and the Middle East have huge potential for large scale solar power generation. Britain with its long coastline with wind, tides and wave and Scottish hydropower has enormous natural advantages. The whole of the North Sea, balanced by hydropower in mountainous areas such as Norway and the possibility of storing water behind dams, offer similar advantages. All offer potential for large scale national and regional “smart grids”. Similar collaborations are likely to take place all over the world. At the local level, similar ways of using natural advantages are likely to emerge. Together they could make nuclear power redundant. Solar powering Solar powering the Mediterranean area could create links in a power grid that will ring the Mediterranean Sea. Sharing electricity over this ‘Mediterranean Ring’ could secure Europe’s power supply 110
Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only. www.brucenixon.com with clean renewable energy, accelerate North Africa’s development and knit together two worlds that seem to be racing apart. It has to be said that early experiments in North Africa in 2005 experienced difficulties. Combined heat and power Combined heat and power, either at large installations such as power stations or in smaller community, residential or office developments, can also make a contribution by avoiding wasted heat and energy, especially when the heat and power are derived from renewable sources. Sustainable Power Networks and Smart National or Regional Grids We need to re-engineer our electricity distribution grid to accommodate small and medium scale, local, combined heat and power generation and power from domestic and office roofs. Current national grids were created in a different age for different needs and sources of power. They can be modernised and expanded for moving electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed through a unified national smart grid. The grid is smart in the sense that it can monitor and balance both the load and the fluctuating power from diverse sources such as sun, wind and wave from different areas, accommodate distributed energy from local areas and, in the future, capitalise on a massive national fleet of clean, plug-in cars. Such a new grid would encompass both the long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines and the lower voltage distribution systems that connect the power to customers. Updating grids will save wastage and money, increase reliability and protect consumers from outages, and make possible a clean electricity system. It will move renewable power from where it is generated to wherever it’s needed, whenever it’s needed. Investing in modernisation of the grid will create thousands of jobs for workers. Such schemes are being considered in North America, Europe, the European North Sea area and could be applied to solar powering the Mediterranean area, embracing European, Middle Eastern and North African countries and, for that matter many, other regions of the world. Smart meters help householders manage their consumption better and save the cost of visits by the meter man, or woman. Smart appliances At the GridWise lab, a refrigerator, washer, dryer, dishwasher, water heater and even coffeemaker are all doing their bit for the national power grid. Massive savings could be made by turning off unnecessary lights at night in cities throughout the world, especially late at night. Large savings can also be made by reducing energy use and heat loss by various means including constructing carbon neutral new buildings and retrofitting existing buildings which are by far the biggest challenge for the nation. The most sensible approach seems to be a combination of approaches, reflecting the geography and ecology of different regions or areas, taking into account the amount of wind, nearby seas and the existence of supplies of wood or biomass. Large power stations supplying through a national grid waste two-thirds of the heat and energy they generate. Smaller more local power stations are able to supply the heat they generate to neighbouring buildings. The following is a summary of the main technologies, for large and small scale application, in roughly descending order of size: Heat and power Concentrated solar power (CSP) technology in sunny countries. Pan-European offshore electricity network to even out fluctuations in North Sea wind and wave turbines. Wind turbines, on land and increasingly at sea, wave, tide and solar PV power. 111
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